Mariwa: An Ivian Tale

The next time they were accosted went much smoother.

Fewer men surrounded the Oke, their arms held casually, their captain older and more soft-spoken, his steed an absurdly stout albeit regular horse. Spotted in the middle of a settlement, they had the time to ready themselves as Almalilly sounded the alarm, exchanging places with almost practiced grace, no surprises this time.

Rosen took to the cabin, Blades fled back pulling her cowl in place, while Furfu and Agare stilled themselves into statues; Holly and Aleh just watched in silence, but as their eyes met, he smiled. Beckoning her with a hand while resting the other against the Oke's wall, he spoke a brief, hushed incantation.

It quickly disappeared, as if it had never existed at all. She saw one of the guards, bearing the same armor as those men four days ago, along with a spear almost as long as himself in both hands.

And behind him, people. So, so many people.

Never had Holly seen so many together, not even attending the festivals of the Lesser, where everyone gathered to dance and sing as she watched from afar, an insignificant group in comparison to this town's everyday bustle. Housewives leaving shops with their daughters, fathers and sons carrying heavy bags of materials while talking and laughing to each other, a man in a blue cape and chin held high scouted by stern lads, an old men in dirty rags sat in the street among a group of downcast women as one particularly young lady tried to calm a distressed babe, all together rain drops in a raging river.

Houses grew like towers above them, some reaching impressive three floors, none in the wild disrepair or makeshift state she remembered from her home. Walls of neat bricks and stone, well cared balconies with potted gardens, embellished and roofed terraces where dozens of people ate together. paved alleways wider than some streets she had ran through as a kid.

To say she was amazed would be putting it lightly. Could anyone even keep track of who was an outsider or not among all these? If only they could sneak right in through their open doors, avoid the notice of those guards, she doubted it. A childhood dream was right there, nothing but a couple doors away, and she wished to feel it on her skin.

Aleh's smug grin turned into a frown. Beads of sweat drifted down the corner of his brow.

"I can tell it's all in order," the captain said. "My apologies for the delay. I hope the sir and his companions can understand times are complicated."

"Of course!" Rosen said. "Wouldn't dare begrudge another man of the sword for doing his duties!"

"Hear, hear! You are an example for your kind sir. No offense meant of course."

"Of course," Rosen said. "I hope the sir can understand times are always tense for our group."

"Rough days for me and for thee, they say."

"Anything else, sir? If not, I don't want to be impolite, but..."

"No, no, you are free to go. I would recommend somewhere to rest and refresh yourselves, though even if we were not entirely full considering circumstances, my experience tells it isn't the kind of offer to tempt you. Good luck with your office, to you and your gorgeous woman too."

"So kind of you, sir," Almalilly said.

The men dispersed, and soon they were moving again. Two sighs of relief echoed inside their transport: first Aleh as he let go of the wall, its color and light returning almost instantly, who was still giving her a funny look as he sat back with his spine straight; the second, Almalilly, all the way from the cabin, so loud some people outside could probably hear it.

"Damned fucking beasts!" She said.

"If you want a minute..." Rosen said.

"No, this much I can handle, thank you. Just let me breath for a second."

Aleh raised an eyebrow at her, an unspoken question at his lips, or maybe a few. She could still feel the little wrapped stone, literally thrown through the hood of her robe, a Fetish as he had called it, the only thing keeping her from the crushing, melting heat emitted by the Oke. She appreciated everything he had done for her, but...

She still didn't care much for him still. She hated that she couldn't trust him, but she couldn't.

He shrugged as he closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

Off they went.

That same night's sights were not a tenth as pleasant as the morning's.

Having fed some in the woods, Agare escorted her back just as the group finished their dinner. They decided not to journey further this late, and soon three of them were drawing lots over the couches, Agare and Furfu taking vigil duty while Rosen and Holly had already cozied themselves on the floor. Not like she would be sleeping anyway.

Almalilly and Blades settled themselves as Aleh grumbled up a storm, uncomfortably close to her as he laid his pillow and covers.

And then came the noises.

They were unlike anything Holly had ever heard. A bubbling croak, a repeated plead choked through a foaming mouth, a wet plodding like boots on mud. It started distant, but quickly approached the Oke at an even pace, footsteps dragging against the dirt, a sound so quiet she could only hear thanks to that evening's deathly silence.

Stranger still how slowly everyone was moving, as if barely awake. Only Aleh, somehow crawling up the seats and over Almalilly with his wiry limbs to reach the Oke's wall, looked as if he was alert. Like that morning, he placed a hand over the wall, and it vanished from their sights as a faint light illuminated the other side.

Holly's blood went cold. What laid there, looking straight at her, was beyond her wildest nightmares.

Gaunt and tall, shape almost resembling a person's as it blurred and stretched itself across the air, its melting chest inflating to bursting then deflating until the vague ridged impression of ribs threatened to tear its soft surface open in a parody of breath. Close to featureless, a liquid red and pitch black in color, living blood slithering and hobbling in her direction, swarms of minuscule insects crawling or swimming in out of its body as its motions forced deep folds into being.

Her nails unperched until they were vertical with her fingers. If her hairs didn't spread across the Oke's interior, it was because her hood held them back. Her Will was undecided between tearing into the wall forward to destroy the threat or the one behind so she could run.

In that interim, Aleh sighed and let go. "Shit, forgot those existed."

"Ugh, at least it's nothing," Almalilly said. "Now get off!"

"Yes, yes..."

"Not dealing with it." Blades said.

"No need." Rosen, who hadn't twitched a finger meanwhile, said, "Just leave it be, they can't keep interest for long."

"Fucking muscle-brain, you could have told us what that was and spared me the effort."

"Apologies, Aleh, I assumed you knew."

"Why, I learned!"

"I want it gone now."

Silence.

It took a few beats before Holly realized she had spoken aloud.

"I-I mean, I don't like it! Never seen anything like it, but it looks kind of dangerous, right?!"

"Dearest, kindest, sweetest Holly, what is wrong with you?" Aleh said.

"Don't talk to me like that."

"Apologies, but tell me, weren't you paying attention?"

"Aleh!" Blades and Almalilly warned in unison, but only the former spoke after. "None of that."

"It was looking at me," Holly said. "It was coming right towards me!"

"Holly, it-" Aleh stopped. "Then again, I don't think you would believe me if I just told you. Rather, let's make a show out of it. Come!"

Aleh got up in a jump, and without waiting for her consent hopped right over Rosen towards the cabin, throwing the hatch open on his way our. Stupefied by the lad's burst of speed, she crawled behind in an almost unconscious stupor. She couldn't deny she was curious now, but unfortunately, the last step was impossible to her, the hatch far too small for her to do anything but peek her head through.

"Aleh." Agare said, not sounding all too pleased.

"Aleh." Furfu said, not sounding all too pleased.

"Aleh!" Holly said, "What are you doing?"

"Wait an instant!"

She heard a low crack, and suddenly all three outside went quiet. Moonlight descended through the shades of the trees above, bathing the trio in shadows too deep to discern expression or detail, but it wasn't hard to tell they were having a conversation, from Aleh's gestures not one going too well.

Another crack, and this time she did see the silhouette of Aleh's fingers crack.

"I will allow it, then," Agare said. "Be brief. Furfu, accompany him."

"O-of course, sir!"

"... Know what? Let's not waste our precious times with a pointless fight. Sure, let her come," Aleh said, then turned, "Holly, climb down the back of the Oke. Your biometric signature is already registered, though you will need to use bare skin to get out."

"W-what?! I-I'm not getting out! That thing is out there!"

"And so are we!"

What could she say to that? She didn't want to go. Despite the grotesque creature stumbling outside, nobody seemed scare, so it should be fine, right?

"Because Holly is such and obedient girl, isn't she?"

Gathering her courage, she crawled over Rosen again, getting a "good luck" so faint she almost missed it as she reached the Oke's back door. Here, the capillaries of each wall converged, tapering off like empty branches of two dead trees, except in one spot: both sides of the door met in the middle, where a strange contraption grew and shrunk with every pulse of light that passed through each of its knobbly heads.

First she pressed a shaking finger to it, then a knuckle, then her wrist. By the time she considered shoving her shoulder through the thing, she lost her patient and stuck her tongue right out into its tasteless, rugged hide. A squelch echoed into the tight confines of the vehicle as both sides separated, followed by several metallic latches inside each side of the door.

She had to remind herself to stand on two legs, always keep them practiced and healthy, as her every instinct begged her to keep to all fours and as close to the ground as possible. That night, even the breeze seemed stilled, the insects distant and cautious with their singing. The gurgling croaks hadn't stopped, if anything they had grown sharper, as if the thing had caught wind of a tasty morsel.

It was with no small amounts of horror that Holly realized the dragging steps were heading towards the back of the Oke. It had been looking for her after all.

It was with grotesque amounts of horror that Holly saw Aleh jump in right from above, his elegant landing heralded by her oddly muffled screams.

"Now that's how it's done!" Aleh said.

"Y-you- you-!"

She had no time for more coherent criticism, as the creature shambled into view. As tall as she was, it hadn't turned away from her even once, its slithering arm crawling like a slug over the Oke's metallic surface, fingers wriggling as if it would help them reach her faster.

Was this the thing in the puddle who knew that certain word?

"Now, pay attention to me carefully, with Asha and eyes both."

Her mind grew blank for an instant, but there was only one thing he could be referring to, right? Hesitantly, Holly unleashed her Will, slithering over his body until she had him enveloped.

Aleh was closer to Rosen then herself, yet different. If she had to say, it was the way the chaos of his being shifted, or pulsed? it was different, of a broader range, making the lad look larger than himself, somewhat more extrinsic, soft at the edges yet still solid. Unfortunately, there was too much there she still couldn't tell, but with every experience a picture was being painted.

"P-perhaps not so throughly? Fuck, this feels odd..."

Then, the chaos changed, emanating like fine mist through the gaps in her hands. In the physical world Aleh's hand rose, palm up, catching the attention of Holly's pursuer, as the mist began to coalesce above it, All that mass grew dense with powerful inner currents, as ripples that resembled some large fish trailing the surface of water chasing insects appeared. The creature reached for it, one outstretched hand opening not like spreading fingers but a stump splitting into tendrils.

It happened all at once. The mist like energy turned electric, prickling her fingers with unbidden aggression until her hands retreated; from the invisible body of water Aleh had conjured, an abomination to match the first appeared. Describing this one would be a fools errand however, the way its form changed with every erratic swoop of its body, though a few patterns stuck: It was elongated, with a body that consisted of many interconnected bulbs, glazed eyes and ciliated holes growing in asymmetric locations only to be subsumed back into its mass.

The thing's fingers were blow into nothing, its arm retracting as if lit aflame. A chorus of a dozen chocked sobs rang from all over its body as it jumped into the air, limbs parting into quarters, torso parting into tenths, and finally turning into a whirling mess of ribbons that quickly vanished into the air leaving not the slightest proof of its presence.

And that was that. Holly stood agape, feeling as if somebody had pulled one nasty prank on her. Looking to the side of the Oke she found nothing but Furfu, even its dragging footsteps had not left one ruffled leaf on the ground.

"W-what happened?!"

"What do you mean, what happened? Were you not looking?"

"N-not exactly looking no, and not at that thing!"

Aleh sighed. "Holly, you were supposed to be analyzing it! What are you so afraid of, did any of us appear frightened?"

"I-I'm not touching that, I don't even know what it is!"

"Which you would, if you had." Aleh clicked his tongue, "You know what? It would always have needed a deeper explanation, so allow us to move on.

"That, Holly, you might have never seen before but certainly heard of. In more scholarly circles, we refer to those as apparitions, and if you never heard that term before, considers its popular variants: ghosts, phantoms, haunts, others too. They are not all too common, but as we approach the border of the Sacred Forest region, where the bulk of the Yinian-Awinian conflict has always occurred, they will become more frequent.

"What matters to us in this particular moment is that they are harmless to us. Nothing but low strata Merurgical beings! Mayhaps if we were a bumbling crowd of countryfolk with no knowledge in the Arts they would be best avoided, yet we are not! If I alone can handle one without issue, what makes you so afraid?"

Holly took a few seconds to mull everything over, to digest the information completely. Finally, she answered thus: "What?"

"What what? Be more specific with your doubts!"

"W-what everything! W-what are you even saying?!"

"I suppose that was a somewhat lackluster explanation. Very well then. An Apparition is a living conglomerate of Type-3 Merurgy often times created by the violent reaction between a living being an Ashic manifestations, often foreign to the region, given a few weeks or days. They tend to appear in battlefields, prisons, gallows, and other places were Asha might be employed as means of torture or execution, and generally are thought as difficult to expel yet mindless pests, as they-"

"Stop!" Aleh froze, an opportunity Furfu did not miss. "W-what he's trying to say, Holly, is that Apparitions are like an impression of people killed through Asha, and they are a kind of parasite that is hard to kill but easy to scare away. T-they are nothing to people l-like us."

Holly didn't need light to distinguish Aleh's blood curling glare, quietly stepping away from his line of sight, "Your boss giving you permission to inflict yourself upon my lesson does not mean you get to interfere, you cum-hole! I had a plan!"

A sliver of light slid right to Aleh's nose, a shining mace with a gnarled head. To his benefit, he didn't even flinch, "I won't let you do just anything you want! Setting people to fail just so you can gloat your education over them!"

"I'm setting her to ask questions! Who needs a student who can only learn through monkey-see, monkey do?! Leaving her like that is setting her for failure!"

"Silence." Agare said from atop the Oke, receiving a pair of glares that did not move him the smallest bit, "If you need to do this here, do it briefly and do it quietly."

"M-my apologies S-sir, I will r-rein him in."

"...Report to me after you are done."

Aleh remained silent until Agare left, before taking a deep breath and slowly clasping his hands. "Sure. Fuck it. You want fast, dickhole? I will give you fast then."

"Can't we do this tomorrow?" Holly said, really not feeling the mood, "Y-you both should be sleeping, right?"

Furfu just stared at her, and she didn't dare meet her eyes, even in the cover of darkness. Aleh however just chuckled. "I will have you know, in my days at the academy, I could spend several days without sleep and not be hampered in the least! Besides, this should provide you enough material to stave off your boredom until the morrow, material I have been meaning to cover with you for some time now."

"Material you've been meaning to cover with me? Why?"

"Because Marquise makes for a poor teacher of Ashic Theory. Don't you still call your Asha a Will, or something of the sort?"

"I call it what it is," Holly said.

"And be very careful when you speak about the Lady," Furfu said. "I won't forgive you as easily as she would."

"Y-yeah, what she said!"

"I'm quoting her very words," Aleh said. "If you have a problem with them, take it with her and not me. Now, assuming neither of you have any further complaints, how about I move us right along into the simplest crash course I know, the good old Sect disciplinarian's World's Making?"

"Y-you know t-that?" Furfu said.

"It's the first thing I taught myself, though its the first time it does me any good. Now, Holly, look at my hands."

She was still unsure of what was going on or would be taught, but she did as told. Aleh's hand began to slowly spread, one upwards and the other down, as a tiny star was born in the space between them, a gorgeous little light that illuminated nothing, growing by pulses to an unheard beat until it became an elongated, oblong shape, featureless and colorless, but alive and breathing.

"The first thing I want you to do, is tell me if you recognize what I'm about to show you."

The oblong object started to rotate, its speed slowly increasing until its bottom half suddenly stopped, began to turn the opposite way. Both halves changed, in different ways: the upper turned blue with patches of green and brown mold emerging from beneath the surface and a white creep from its highest and lowest points; the lower turned dark, then darker, until it was such an impenetrable black even the night looked bright in comparison, enveloped by a fine violet aura. The center too shifted as it was twisted into formlessness, a dense fog drawn out like water from a used rag.

Two nearly perfect spheres had been formed, and Holly watched, mesmerized, as the lower was destroyed, turning into a shower of ashes that quickly vanished in the air starting from the tip to the scrunched middle. With every tenth of the lowermost gone, the uppermost grew in size, until all Aleh was "holding" was the gorgeous display of azure. A throne of fog carried it on its back, a film of mist enveloping every exposed chunk of it, protecting the shapeless, bone white fluff masses that swam above the broken waxing moon shaped land formed over its center.

"It's our Starlit World, isn't it?" she said, not the least amount uncertain.

"G-good, Holly! A-and Ivias is-"

"Irrelevant, this isn't geography," Aleh said. "Second, tell me whichever answer first comes to mind: what is this world's bedrock? What constitutes its basest, most essential load bearers?"

She had no idea how to tackle such a question. After a couple dozen seconds of pondering in silence, she took a clue from her surroundings. "S-soil? Earth! Rock?"

"T-think more abstractly Holly, for e-example-"

"She followed the spirit of the question, so that's a good enough answer."

"Except it wouldn't be, if a disciplinarian-"

"Fuck the disciplinarians, she is answering me, and I say it's good enough!" The image flickered, jagged edges bursting through its dissipating surface like broken bones. Aleh gasped, and suddenly the Starlit returned to its exuberant self. "Tch! Don't listen to her Holly, what matters is this: soil, stone those are not bad guesses, however the answer lies deeper still, and not in the direction you expect. Behold!"

Before her eyes, their world peeled away.

No, not peeled she realized, but bloomed. A thousand petaled flower with an ethereal blue interior, arranged like a many layered pedestal for its treasured core, a second button, an impossible storm of golden dust endlessly churning around itself in contradictory directions, many current overlapping without interrupting the other's flow. Though she had never seen it, she knew by heart what he was about to introduce.

"T-this is..."

"I don't need to ask this, but when you utilize this Will of yours, you can feel it's here yet simultaneously not, am I correct? The Starlit World is merely the surface of an unperceived pond, one said to contain a bottomless abyss, and right below the shallows from which we perceive this abyss lays the first of the drowning depths, one which most Dashi will never dare dive to!"

"A-Asha!"

"No."

Holly Froze. "No?"

"T-this Holly, is Merurgy," Furfu said, the shadow of her finger poking the image and instantly melting half the golden currents in an event that should be very much cataclysmic. "I-it is the existential value of the world, or so it is s-said."

Aleh jumped back. "O-oi, Faceless, fingers out of my fucking delusion! Did you forget what you fucking are?!"

"Oh, my apologies," Furfu said. "A-anyway, some believe Merurgy was originally only p-produced by living beings, and t-that inanimate objects only began to emit Merurgy after being infected-"

"Excuse me, which of us both was the one sent to an Academy to learn these things, you or I?" Aleh tentatively slid forward again. "Don't bog the lesson with unrelated, completely nonsensical trivia."

"S-stupid cunt."

"Want to do one more without stuttering, you gormless asshole?!"

"Quiet!" Holly said, "The others are sleeping!"

"No we aren't," said Blades, who was putting back her cuirass, sitting by the Oke's retractable staircase. Holly didn't fail to notice the reflections on the naked blade laid over her lap.

"A-anyway, stop being rude Aleh! Not like she isn't helping!"

"She isn't helping! The field of Merurgical Genesis is fraught with discourse, and what she's regurgitating in your ears is nothing but a complete outdated model filled with inaccuracies that the her disciplinarians refuse to drop thanks to its simplicity. Better now? If I may continue, soon she will insist in introduce you to things like the World's Language Theory, or-"

"W-w-what's even wrong with the World's Language?!"

"U-uhm, can we please-"

"What's right with it?! It's a model no institution worth its salt would ever teach as anything but a long debunked historical anecdote!"

"It's the structural foundation of half the continent's enchantment models! O-of the Remnant's entire witch corps!"

"Wouldn't be, if they bothered keeping with the times!"

"It's the one you use, you moron!"

"Don't you call me a moron, you feces-"

"Quiet!"

Holly scared Furfu into retreating, Aleh into nearly dropping his light show, and herself into forgetting what had made her so angry in the first place. She shook her head, and in the process noticed a blue light to her left, along the trees. It quickly disappeared, but the silhouette that stood in its place and was now quickly approaching didn't.

Holly bowed, hands above her head "I-I'm sorry! I swear I won't do it again! It's just- I mean..." She didn't actually have the words she know she needed to say, and thus just faced the floor in silent shame, waiting for her punishment

"I understand," Agare said. "Furfu, you are back with me. Aleh, go back inside at once, finish whatever you need to finish there."

"M-my apologies s-sir, but-"

"Try me." Agare's voice carried no discernible emotion, and yet chilled Holly to her core, she couldn't imagine what Furfu might be feeling right now. "You too, Aleh. Make me repeat myself."

Aleh harrumphed, but did he defy his orders? wordlessly, Holly followed right behind him, carefully crawling over the sitting Blades, propped on her hands with a distant look in her eyes.

"And you, Blades." Agare hesitated."Thank you."

"Nothing to it, Boss." Blades said, and closed the Oke behind them.

------

Inside, Aleh had to take a breather before attempting the "delusion" once again. The process this time went by faster, but was no less astounding to either Holly or his new audience.

"Aaaaah, this is so nostalgic!" Almalilly said, laying on her side, almost resting her head against Holly's elbow. "How long has it been, i wonder? Goodness, how many decades?!"

"Eh. It's not that special," Blades said.

"Because you already saw it! Oh, by the way, very well done Aleh! It's just like how I remember it."

"Thank you, Almalilly!" At Aleh's words, the Starlit World peeled back to reveal the golden storm again. "Where were we, Holly?"

"Merurgy."

"Of course," Aleh said as the flower of worlds started rotating again. "Now, Merurgy is a complicated matter. There is no real agreed way to perceive it, no agreed shape to it, and no agreed intrinsic purpose to it. Some call it the "Starlit Soul," the "Starlit Flesh," but while it does bridge a certain connection among all things it is largely believed the Merurgical Plane, the plane of existence Merurgy inhabits, is not one whole mass, closer to a multi-cellular being, if you know the term."

"I know."

"All matter produces Merurgy, though our dearest Furfu's belief didn't exactly emerge from thin air, organic creatures can produce, and manipulate, Merurgy at a much higher rate. Its position as the 'existential value' of the physical realm... has its controversies."

"I see."

"Now, Merurgy isn't a static phenomenon, it has variations and undergoes metamorphosis quite often, which I won't go into the finer details of for brevity's sake. Rather, the most important aspect for us is that while you feel, see, in some cases even smell or taste Merurgy, you don't actually directly control it."

"Oh?"

The Merurgical bud split, its long slender petals unfolding until they pushed its predecessor's back, unveiling a third sphere, one much stranger than both others. A labyrinth of tendrils curling, overlapping, or fusing into one another, forming complex yet ever evolving shapes, perfectly round spirals sharing space with suns and gnarled trees and malformed skeletons.

"This is the Ashic Plane, and if you think the Merurgical Plane was abstract, this one will look absurd. Some call it the World's Skeleton, as it provides the framework in which Merurgy, and Asha of course, function. Just as all living creatures exist as Merurgical Waves, we all exist as Ashic Frames, intangible calcified bodies that break and remake themselves through the course of a well lived life."

"Uhm."

"... To use Asha is to reconfigure yourself from your birth bones, to leave behind the mold assigned you and forge a new body from the path you follow! Though that's a discipline fraught with choice, usually for worse. Ashas are usually classified into three categories..."

"Uhm?"

"Type one, called Strong Snail Ashas, will turn you into a slug; Type two Ashas, referred to as Outer Snail Ashas, which allows you to turn others into slugs; Type three, the Mystery Snail Ashas, in which you partake of another slug's power."

"I like the first one," Blades said.

"Cool."

"Alright, enough."

Aleh closed down the image with a clap, sending Holly reeling back. He took a breath so deep it almost sounded like a dying gasp, exhale for a solid twenty seconds, then frowned at her. "Holly, I ask you this again, kindly, with no intention to insult you: What is wrong with you?"

"Aleh."

Shocked, Holly took a few seconds to answer, "W-whu?"

"If the previous discussion distressed you in some manner, I'm afraid I will have to apologize not only now but many times in the future, that Faceless and I have a history together and will certainly butt heads until one of the other has no head left to butt, however I know for certain that isn't it."

"I-I don't..."

"You don't? I have no clue what you mean to say with just those two words, but I could bet a leg and a ball that it will be a lie. Or do you really go into periods of profound melancholy every time you wet your feet?"

"C-can't we just continue the lesson?"

"Despite a slight interest in education, I'm not being paid to be your tutor, and no matter what Marquise asks me I won't go so low as trying to force my knowledge through the skull of an obviously disinterested student."

"I-I'm not disinterested! I'm listening, really!"

"Let's test your interest then. Holly, why did I insist on this lesson?"

"Uhmm, b-because the Marquise put you to it?"

"As I said. Why else?"

"Youuu... thought it was silly that I got scared by some ghost?"

"Partially. Why else?"

"I don't know! Because you like teaching? Because you wanted to prove you're smarter than me?" Because you wanted to mock me? To scare me? To hurt me? "Just tell me already! I'm getting tired of this."

"Because you haven't been yourself Holly."

She shivered. Her Will flew free, and in an instant Aleh was bound from all sides as she compressed him. The Oke's dust, or Merurgy or whichever force was put there to defend its occupants flew into rage pushing back against her length with agonizing, scouring waves of grains, the once gentle pulses of light growing red and urgent, barbed thorns slowly pushing their way out of the walls.

And Aleh had not budged beyond a slight flinch, his eyes piercing deep into the veil of her robes as if he could look her right in the eyes with a defiance that only agitated her more. She had fingers, she had nails, a reason, she could dig into him as deep as his heart, unearth all his weakest parts like she had done to God, and all she had to do was will it so.

"You don't know me."

"You don't need to know a child all your life to know something's wrong when one day you see them frolicking in the fields and the next they refuse to leave their bed." Aleh was sweating, but still, "If you would please, stop this, it won't end well."

"I'm not a-!" She shook her head. The pain was starting to dull her thoughts. "Y-you don't know me! I-I'm Holly Seneschal, I never liked mean lads like you, who think they can hurt whoever they want! I-I-"

Aleh slowly rose both hands, palms facing her. She almost expected him to try one of his tricks, squeezing him tighter, but nothing came, "I-I understand, and I s-swear on my names I will apologise to h-her for my behavior t-tomorrow. P-please release me before you get hurt."

"And you don't know me! Don't say you know me!"

"I w-won't, I-I promise. Please..."

The pain grew unbearable. It was as if the Oke had shrunk to a quarter of its size, barbs crushing her limbs and dicing her skin apart with an almost anxious hunger. With a deep breath she let go, quickly pressing her Will together in a defensive cocoon while expecting the starved fangs to fall on her, but with an almost conscious hesitation their transport returned to normal, its own aggression forgotten.

Aleh dropped to his hands, and so did she. Her head was swimming, her arms weak, her skin cold with sweat and fear. What had come over her?!

The sliding screech of metal on a scabbard reminded her there were other people around. She snapped back, just in time to see Rosen hiding something behind his back, a sheepish smile tugging his lips. Blades was much slower, making sure Holly was watching as she holstered her weapon and sat it beside herself, bearing a placid expression, at least in comparison to Almalilly who had turned so pale she was partially reflective.

"T-thank you." Aleh said, panting, "I don't know you, I understand that, I was simply speaking from observation: something happened that day you trained on the grassy hill, and it affected you deeply."

"I-I..."

"It's alright. I wanted to cheer you up, distract you even if just a little."

"You wanted to know what happened."

"...I can't deny I did. We were concerned it might be pertinent to our mission."

Aleh was no Marquise, but he was her trusted agent, right? She wasn't alone anymore, she had people who needed her and who she needed in turn, Marquise's gift carelessly disregarded.

Holly Seneschal had gone too far.

And so she told him. Not everything, of course, that certain word was a secret she would bury in her mind before her body was sent back to the earth, but otherwise she held nothing back. Something was coming.

The four around her listened in silence until she was done. Aleh sighed, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes for a minute. Finally, when he opened them again, he had the toothiest smile she had ever seen.

"Holly, would you like to tell this straight to the Marquise?"